Saturday, December 31, 2016

My Favourite Releases of 2016

Oh, hello. Pretty quiet year on the old TSTAT web-blog, no? As if this weren't enough of an antiquated format to begin with. Hell, I can't even be bothered to tweet, let alone post an entire paragraph of nothing on here. As far as TSTAT is concerned, I've had my newest release in the can for awhile now and I BELIEVE it will see a proper release very soon. I really swung for the fences on this one. I hope you guys like it.

Not that I haven't been busy. Quite the contrary. Here's a few things I managed to accomplish within the past 12 months:

HAMN - PIG PEOPLE (I sing, play guitar, and am the principal songwriter [so far] in this doom/grunge trio)

COASTAL PIGS (Just the drummer, no songwriting contributions on my part. The songwriter in question, however, is a genius so I'm thrilled to be along for the ride)

THEN & NOW (The radio show I've been doing for CHUO 89.1 FM for over a year now)THE WRONG STUFF (I composed and recorded all the music for this fantastic short film)

But, as far as TSTAT went, I didn't really see the point in posting updates seeing as there weren't any, so I didn't. The end of the year list, however, is a given. So here goes...

1) AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED - ARC EP "The first of a series of EPs focusing on the different vocalists of ANb puts KAT in the spotlight and knocks it out of the park with a very different metallic edge than we've heard so far. Awesome doom metal groove coupled with devastatingly personal lyrics. Sold."

2) SEVEN SISTERS OF SLEEP - EZEKIAL'S HAGS "This seemed to me like your pretty standard doom metal fare but they sneak these crazy-melodic guitar riffs into the mix every now and then which elevate the overall sound into something that really pays off."

3) SUNN O))) - CAHH O))) "I saw them earlier this year and this live album is basically exactly the set of music they performed. The sub-bass vibrations tickled the shit out of my nose."

4) GIGANTIC BRAIN - S/T "I'm very excited at the prospect of another GB release (I was under the impression the project was kaput). More of the same amazing electro-heaviness, weirdo vocals and cracked lyrics."

6) APHEX TWIN - CHEETAH EP "I think I like this one even better than SYRO. Just feels a little more like classic APHEX to me."

7) BORIS w/MERZBOW - GENSHO "Much like DRONEVIL, this is a 2-disc album where both discs are meant to be played at the same time (aka - search "boris gensho" on youtube and you'll find a mixed version actually nevermind I did it for you it's no problem). That is just SO Boris, y'know?"

8) PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND - FALSE HIGHS, TRUE LOWS "More waking nightmare music from this french-combo. Amidst wave after wave of samey-sounding black metal (Christ, there's more of that shit than ever - all of it equally yet individually AMAZING is that sarcastic enough???), this really stands out."

9) TOBACCO - SWEATBOX DYNASTY "A total no-brainer. This is amazing. If you don't think so, you must like other things (some of which are most certainly dumb)."

10) SHAHMAN - FRAGMENTS OF A DISTANT LIGHT "This band continues to evolve with every release and I couldn't be happier. Here, we find them leaning very heavily on the melodic side of things, giving the screamy sludgefest a bit of a rest. Heavy and majestic."

11) GAUSS - THALWEG "I came very late to the indie-rock game. It annoyed the living shit out of me for years. But I'm finding the good stuff. These guys have it. Man, I love those horns too."

12) WHORES. - GOLD "Basically a doom metal version of SHELLAC. Great idea!"

13) DÄLEK - ASPHALT FOR EDEN "Another band back from the purgatory of defunctedness. Just more noisy awesomeness from these guys. Reliable!"

14) BAD BREEDING - S/T "Angry British punk! Hailing from a council estate in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. How perfect is that?"

16) TYCHO - EPOCH "Hadn't heard of this group until very recently but I feel like they somehow had my best interests in mind when they put this together so thanks dudes."

17) THE DIRTY NIL - HIGHER POWER "Kind of takes the best elements from METZ and JAPANDROIDS. Or, a version of PUP that doesn't make one feel like they should maybe start thinking about acting their own age."

18) BLACK MOTH SUPER RAINBOW - SEEFU LILAC "Another recent favourite. Just a mini-album from these guys but still jammed with more great music than most stupid, dumb, idiot, lame-o, dickweed, dingleberry, dorkess m'lorkess full albums."

19) NEUROSIS - FIRES WITHIN FIRES "I haven't heard anything from these guys since TIMES OF GRACE that really moved me in any way but THIS album moved me right down the stairs and out the door! Literally no idea what that means."

20) HELMS ALEE - STILLICIDE "The same gripe I always have with this band - the female vocals are far more interesting than the dude. If it were up to me, he'd be used a 'RICK WRIGHT' amount of the time."

21) DEAD CROSS - WE'LL SLEEP WHEN THEY'RE DEAD "Just the one song from these guys so far but I listened to it a hell of a lot. Am I alone in thinking that MIKE PATTON replacing GABE SERBIAN on vocals will make things worse? He's not exactly a team player!"

22) NO JOY - DROOL SUCKER EP "Lovely, lovely melodies. More music written specifically more me and my personal preferences."

23) ALCEST - KODAMA "I almost missed this one! Didn't even realize they put an album out this year! Dumb. Anyways, a lot of the SHELTER elements are present but the black metal vibes are creeping back in as well. Very nice blend."

24) HUMANITIES - S/T EP "I can't remember the last time I heard a current band tap into the spirit of 90s post-hardcore so perfectly."

25) DISASTERPEACE - HYPER LIGHT DRIFTER OST "I hyper-light-drifted the shit out of this incredible video game for a couple of months there. The original score stands on its own though. God, I'd love to own the double-cassette version of this (impossible)."

The JESU / SUN KIL MOON album is abysmally awful. THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN album just did nothing for me which is too bad, would've loved to have gone out on a high-note with them. Most of the heavy stuff I heard this year was basically minor variations of the same 6 minute black metal song (seriously, shut up about OATHBREAKER). There's lots of people who just pretend to like music, I'm pretty sure.